Just got off the river the other day—great trip. During our time on the water we saw, as most people do, several motor, commercial oar and private trips. All our interactions with these folks were wonderful—Western gave us propane, OU gave us Poncho's, OARS and AzRA left us tons of space to pull in to a Havazoo eddy, I had a terrific talk with the Oregon private up Matkat, Butch from Wilderness and the boyos from Western helped our folks across the sea of rubber at Deer Creek. The willow flycatcher and spotted owl guys gave us a talk at Lava-Chuar. Donny Sullivan from Hatch gave us more sugar and chocolate than we could scarf down in a year on his runout from the pad (and all those four-stroke motors are great—thanks, guys!). It was fun, and our folks loved the interaction between all the groups (“You've got a real community here, don't you?”). Which is what this rambling is really all about.

During a long conversation with some of our guests while hiking, we got into a lot of the issues being thrown around in the crmp process. They were surprised to learn of the intrusion of the health department, problems between private and commercial boaters, horrified to hear of a ten-year wait on the private waiting list, and shocked at some of the prices charged by some outfitters, or the three-day Whitmore-down trips. But they could see, and I agree, that there is an awful lot being done right on the river, by everyone who uses it. The corridor is clean, the beaches are usually gorgeous, we had flexibility to change our schedule and camp elsewhere if we knew we would run into too many people otherwise, the food is yummy, the equipment is top-notch and the skills, knowledge and passion of the guides are first-class. And our people were having the time of their lives.
I was quick to point out, when someone on our trip asked “Do those people on the motor boats have any fun?”, that indeed they do. In fact, as far as those people are concerned, they had the best trip, the best guides and the best time ever. And they will tell their friends, who will most likely return with that company. And it's true. Every trip down there is the best trip ever. It's the Grand Canyon, remember? If your trip is less than perfect, you may have had a particularly picky guest, maybe a crew conflict or a bad run in Crystal, but those are the exceptions, not the rule. You see Grand Canyon Expeditions, or Dories, or Moki or Diamond going by, and you can bet their people are having a ball. Which is as it should be.
Overall, I think most of us agree that, in general, things are working pretty well along the river. Many of the outfitters are doing good things for the canyon, their guests and their guides. The motor outfitters are voluntarily converting to quieter technology. Some offer partial or complete health insurance to their guides and some have profit-sharing and 401k plans for their employees. Some outfitters do a portion or all of their trips every season as no-interchange trips, even though those trips have the potential to make substantially less money than partial trips. All of the outfitters have been active financial supporters of the Park Service Resource Management trips and the annual Guides Training Seminars. Eleven of the 15 outfitters are now members of the Grand Canyon Conservation Fund.
And yes, there are some things that need working on. The private sector needs to get on the river quicker. It would be good to make commercial trips available to people with lower incomes. We need to have the river corridor protected as a potential wilderness. We don't need: more health regulations, enforcement and technology to dilute the experience further; two and three day trips, charging close to $300 per day for a trip; exchanging passengers at Whitmore and taking on new folks for a three-day run to the Lake. We'd like to see all baggage boatmen and swampers get paid for their work, and find a way to assure that the guides who continue to provide such excellent service, and who have been so instrumental in assuring the success of the outfitters, get paid well and are provided the benefits that would allow them a reasonable lifestyle. Are the trips run by the companies who do some of these things “bad?” Not at all—their folks have a great time, the canyon is still the canyon and the guides are still working hard to help protect the place. But we believe that if we don't draw the lines somewhere and influence the standards for the industry, in terms of what we know to be the best we can do for the canyon, our guests and guides, the standards may continue to degrade. We laugh about ugly possibilities like one-day jet boat trips through the canyon and wearing Walt Disney uniforms as part of a giant “river running conglomerate,” but perhaps we should be looking nervously behind us at all the many, many people who want to visit this river. We've made it easy and safe(r), now everyone knows about it and we have to set some boundaries.
So let's try to remember this when arguing, discussing and otherwise ruminating over the “details” of the Colorado River Management Plan: there's a lot going right down there. If it ain't broke don't fix it. The commercial sector is not necessarily run by greedy robber barons who have no regard for the Canyon and the River. The private sector is not necessarily a bunch of ill-informed yahoos. The guides are not necessarily only out to protect their jobs, their traditions and their beer. But what do we really need to change? What isn't necessarily broken right now but will be in the future with increasing demand if things don't change? What are this place and this industry going to look like in 25 or 50 years if we don't stand up for what we believe and take care of some of these issues? It's the Grand Canyon, and it will be here long after we are gone, surviving every horrible thing that we could ever do to it. But our ability to find in it community, solitude, discovery and just plain fun might be gone if we don't think about it now.

Christa Sadler